Automatic sewing units



"2 sheets-sheet 1.

, INVENTOR. GeorgeJ. Abel Oct. 21, 1958 G. JABEL AUTOMATIC sEw1NG UN1TSFiled Desc.` '7, 1955 BY Y ATT NEY oct. 21, 195s Filed Dec. 7, 1955ILCRG MACH- START Moro srARr .5.. Mor sroP 2 4Sheecs--Sheetl 2 CRBMAC/'Irl S TOP il n` MACH.- START CRB MACH-2 STOP m4 QJ-r CIM 7 3 'iP Rcms ,Il i# ens r-4 lo HF c ll *H I 4 1 l r-4 T-5' f I CRS-3 11,2

IH c e .I *IJ 5 I "IIE X I NAND SEI-.AUTO AU 'er W I INVENTOR. Fig. Z BYGeorge J. Abel AUTOMATIC SEWING UNITS George Justin Abel, Watchung, N;J., assignor to The Singer Manufacturing Company, Elizabeth, N. I., acorporation of New Jersey Application December 7, 1955, Serial No.551,593

4 Claims. (Cl. 112-155) This invention relates to coordinatedarrangements for, and integrated control of, individual sewing machineswith associated apparatus for the automatic fabrication of articles suchas work blanks from continuous webs of material.

It is customary in the prior art to employ special machines comprisingseveral sewing machine heads mounted on a common lbase and all gearedtogether for simultaneous and synchronous operation from one drivingsource; This is disadvantageous because the very special nature of thecomposite machine renders it inexible and unsuitable for easymodification to handle other products.

The approach to the problem according to the present invention has beenthrough the use of an integrated line of individual conventional sewingmachines arranged for noncontinuous intermittent operation in apredetermined time sequence cycle controlled by relays, timers andsolenoid-actuated electric power transmitters. The operating cycle ismanually initiated and automatically terminated. 'Ihe basic idea is thateach machine, in turn, 'feeds and sews just enough material for one unitproduct and then stops. The final step in the cycle is the feeding to ablanking press platen of enough sewn material to make a unit product.The operating cycle then stops automatically and the operator must pressa button which operates the press ram to cut out a work blank andsubstantially simultaneously to initiate the next operating cycle tostart the rst sewing machine;

It is a primary object of this invention to provide separate sewing,cutting and feeding apparatus arranged in an integrated line set-up witha manually-initiated cycle of automatic sequential control usingcoordinated timers, relays and solenoid-actuated power transmitters, theoutput per cycle being one work blank.

It is a further object of this invention to provide an automatic cyclingsewing unit for making sewn work blanks from continuous webs of materialin which the operator merely initiates the `cycle for each work blankproduced, the cycle being terminated automatically.

With the above and other objects in View, as will hereinafter appear,the invention comprises the devices, combinations, and arrangements ofparts hereinafter set forth and illustrated in the accompanying drawingsof a preferred embodiment of the invention, from which the severalfeatures of the invention and the advantages attained thereby will bereadily understood by those skilled in the art.

In the drawings, Fig. l is a diagrammatic view of an integrated line ofmachines embodying the invention.

Fig. 2 is a diagram of the electrical control system' embodying theinvention.

Referring to Fig. l, web material from a supply spool 11 is led to afirst sewing machine 12 through a suitable `guide 13 where it engagesthe feed thereof which advances the material under a gravity-biasedtension device 14 and presents it to a second sewing machine 15. Asecond web material 16 'from a supply spool 17 is led through suitabletension devices 18 and guides 19 to the ICC second sewing machine 15where it is joined by a longitudinal seam to the first web material. Thecomposite web 20 issues from the second sewing machine, passes through atension device 21 and between feed rollers 22 driven by a motor 26 andis presented to the platen of a blanking press 23 having areciprocatable ram 24. The press 23 is operated iby compressed air underthe control of a valve 25 operated by a solenoid Sol 5. The rst sewingmachine 12 is driven by a power transmitter 27 controlled by solenoidsSol 1 and Sol 2. Similarly, the second sewing machine 15 is driven by apower transmitter 28 controlled by solenoids Sol 3 and Sol 4. Thesolenoid-controlled transmitters 27 and 28 are of the type shown anddescribed in the U. S. patent application Serial No. 536,414, ledSeptember 26, 1955, to which reference may be had for a betterunderstanding of their operation. The solenoid control is so close inreproducing the same running time of the sewing machines in each cyclethat the time interval set by` the timers is an accurate measure of thelength of material sewn.

Push-button stations 29, 30 and 31 are associated with each machine asshown in Fig. l. The control is such that the rst sewing machine 12starts, draws the web material 10 from the spool 11, `hems one edge of alength suilicient for one work blank, passes it on toward the secondsewing machine and stops. The second machine 15 then starts and drawsboth web materials lll and 16 through its lfeed, stitches the two piecestogether for the same length and stops. The roller feed motor 26 thenstarts and feeds one length to the blanking press 23 and stops. Theoperator then pushes the `button labeled Ram Start at station 31 whichoperates the press ram 24 and cuts out the work blank which is thenremoved manually by the operator and is ready for the next operation.

It will be noted from the above that the web material is advanced byonly one machine at a time so that there is no need for maintaining anycostly 4synchronous control between machines. It is further to `be notedthat each cycle is manually initiated and automatically terminated sothat the quantity of production is always geared to the operatorsworking rate, and there is no uncontrolled build up of inventory ofunfinished goods.

Operation The specific control system by which this timed sequenceoperation is performed will now be explained with reference to Fig. 2.The operator starts the motors of transmitters 27 and 28 by pushingmotor start buttons at stations 29 and 30 which energize magneticstarters M1 and M-Z in the usual way. Next the cycle start button atstation 31 is pushed which energizes relay CRS momentarily to energizerelay CR3 and timer T-l which are locked in through the normally-closedcontacts of the timer T-l. Relay CRl is energized and locked in throughthe normally-closed contacts of relay CRS. Pick-up of CRI releasessolenoid Sol 2 and picks up solenoid Sol 1 to engage the clutch oftransmitter 27 to start the sewing machine 12.

Relay CR7 and timer T-2 are energized andlo-cked in throughnormally-closed contacts of the timer 'lf-2. At the expiration of theperiod for which timer T-Z is set the normally-open contacts of T-2close and energize relay CRS whose contacts open to deenergize relay CR1and release solenoid Sol 1 and to energize solenoid Sol 2, thus brakingthe sewing machine 12 to a stop. At the same time the normally-opencontacts of relayl CRS close to energize CR2 which is locked in throughnormallyclosed contacts of relay CR4. This energizes the solenoid Sol 3and deenergizes the solenoid Sol 4 to engage the clutch of transmitter28 to start the second sewing machine 15.

At the expiration of the time for which timer T-1 is set, thenormally-open contacts of T-1 close to energize relay CR4 whose contactsopen to deenergize relay CR2 and release solenoid Sol 3 and to energizesolenoid Sol 4 thus braking the sewing machine 15 to a stop. Closure ofnormally-open contacts of relay CR4 energizes relay CR6 and timer T-3which are locked in through no1'- mally-closed contacts of the timerT-3. Closure of contacts of relay CR6 energizes the magnetic starter M-3for the feed roll motor 26 which starts and feeds material from thesewing machines to the press 23.

At the expiration of the time for which the timer T-3 is set thenormally-closed contacts of T-3 are opened and relay CR6 is deenergized.This also deenergizes the timer T-3 allowing it to return to normal.Opening of the contacts of CR6 deenergizes the feed roll motor starterM`3 thus stopping the feed roll motor 26 and this completes the cycle.This operation is repeated with the cycle start button a few times inorder to provide enough stitched material to pass completely under theram 24 of 4the blanking press 23. When this `is accomplished, furtheroperation is started automatically by pressing the ram start button atstation 31 to initiate cutting out the blank, provided the repeat cycleswitch is placed in the on position. t

Operation of the ram start button energizes relay CRS and solenoid lSoland locks them in through normally-closed contacts of relay CR11.Solenoid Sol 5 operates a 4-way valve 25 ,admitting air to the ramcylinder 32 of the press 23 to operate the cutting stroke. Normally-opencontacts of CRS close to energize relay CR10 and timer T-4 which arelocked in through the normally-closed contacts of the timer T-4.

At the expiration of the time for which the timer T44 is set,normally-open contacts of T4 close to energize CR11 temporarily, thusopening t-he normally-closed contacts of CR11 to deenergize CRS andsolenoid Sol 5 to operate valve to raise the press ram 24. Energizationof relay CR11 closes normally-open contacts of CR11 to energize relayCRS and the cycle is restarted just as though the cycle start buttonwere pressed and the cycle again proceeds as described above.

If it is desired to manually operate the roll drive motor independentlyof the automatic cycling, the Hand-Automatic Switch is placed in Handposition. This energizes relay CRH closing its normally-open contacts.Closure of the roller start button will then energize the magneticstarter M-3 and the feed roll motor 26 will run so long as this buttonis depressed.

It will be seen from the above that I have provided an integratedassembly line of sewing, feeding and cutting machines, each with its owndriving unit, and coordinated controls therefor which start and stopeach machine in a predetermined manually-initiated andautomaticallyterminated time sequential cycle whereby each machine, inturn, handles just enough material to make a unit work blank, thusmaking unnecessary any synchronous tie between the machines.

Because of the loops of the web material formed between the machines andbecause the timers may be set very closely to duplicate the length ofmaterial fed by each machine, this system requires very little resettingand then only at infrequent intervals. p

The flexibility of this arrangement is clearly reflected in the easewith which the individual machines may be rearranged for `a new spacerelation and the timers reset for a new time relation, should lthesituation demand it.

This invention has been described with reference to the specific machineoperations of hemming and joining two webs of material using two sewingmachines but it is not to be construed as so limited. It is to beunderstood, therefore, that any known operations involving any number ofsewing machines can be used in the system disclosed and the inventionincludes within its scope such arrangements as come within thedefinitions set forth in the appended claims.

Having thus set forth the nature of the invention, what I claim hereinis:

1. Apparatus for making work blanks having pieces joined by stitching,comprising a plurality of separate sewing machines arranged in tandemfor stitching and joining continuous webs of material to form acomposite web,` a solenoid-operated power transmitter associated witheach machine, control means comprising relays and timers for actuatingthe transmitter solenoids to start and Stop each sewing machine in apredetermined time sequential cycle .and for establishing a running timefor each machine just suficient to feed enough material length for apredetermined work blank, a blanking press for receiving thecompositeweb from the sewing machines, and manual means for initiatingsusbtantially simultaneously a single blanking operation of the pressand a single cycle of sequential operations of the sewing machines.

2. An automatic cycling sewing unit comprising a plurality of separatesewing and feeding devices arranged in tandem for stitching and joiningcontinuous webs of material to form a composite web, individual powermeans for driving each device, solenoid means for actuating the powermeans, control means, including relays and timers, for actuating thesolenoid means to start and stop each device in a predetermined timesequence cycle and to establish a predetermined running time for eachdevice just sufficient to feed a predetermined length of material, ablanking press for receiving the predetermined length of the compositeweb from the sewing and feeding devices, and -manual means forinitiating a single blanking stroke of the press .and a single cycle ofsequential operations of the sewing and feeding devices.

3. Apparatus for making work blanks having pieces joined by stitchingcomprising a plurality of separate sewing, cutting and feeding devicesarranged in tandem for stitching, joining and cutting continuous webs ofmaterial, solenoids for establishing an operating cycle for saiddevices, and unitary control means including relays and timers foractuating the solenoids for starting and stopping each device in turn toestablish sequential running times for each device so that each devicefeeds substantially the same length of said material in each cycle.

4. An automatic cycling sewing unit comprising an integrated, in-linespace arrangement of separate sewing, cutting and feeding devices forstitching, joining and cut- -ting continuous webs of material, separatedriving means for each of said devices, solenoids for actuating saiddriving means, control means for energizing the solenoids in apredetermined order and for a predetermined time f-or starting andstopping each device in a time sequential cycle, manual means forstarting the cycle and automatic means for stopping it.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

